Screen Schooled: Two Veteran Teachers Expose How Technology Overuse Is Making Our Kids Dumber

by Joe Clement

As Susan and I chatted and caught up, I couldn’t help but notice that her granddaughter was silent, hunched forward over an iPad as she pecked at the icons on the screen in a zombie-like trance. Susan realized I was looking at the girl. “It’s amazing, isn’t it?” she asked, pointing to the iPad. “I remember trying to grocery shop with my kids. What a chore! Now she’s occupied and learning, and I can get in and out of here in a hurry. Isn’t it wonderful?” My head nearly exploded. The only response I could come up with was some sort of guttural noise. We said our good-byes and parted ways. Rather, she moved on as I stood there, processing what she had said. Of course grocery shopping with little kids is a pain—because they ask questions! A grocery store is, at its core, a learning laboratory for a child. “What’s this? Can I have one of these? Why is ketchup in a plastic bottle and pickles are in glass jars? Why do the lobsters have rubber bands on their claws?” Even when children are too young to ask questions, they are still aglow with curiosity. They touch everything, filling the cart with random items they’ve pulled from the shelf when the parent has turned away, trying to get a sense for what different things feel like. They point to different-looking people as the parent quietly pushes their hand back down. They interact with their parent and with the people and products around them. Yet Susan, who was charged with making academic acquisition decisions for her school, th...